Using Pilla as a Food Safety app

More food compliance, less paperwork

Robust food safety controls protect your customers from illness, your business from closure, and your reputation from damage that can take years to recover.

Most jurisdictions require food businesses to have a documented food safety management system. The specific rules vary — check your local regulations — but the core principle is universal: you need to identify hazards, control them, and prove you're doing it.

The business case is equally clear:

  • Hygiene ratings and inspection scores are public. Poor scores drive customers away.
  • Insurance often requires documented safety procedures.
  • One serious incident can mean closure, prosecution, or worse.

A complete food safety program has three parts:

Using Pilla as a Food Safety Management System

The foundation of food safety

Using Pilla for Daily Food Safety Checks

Checks that actually get done

Preparing for Food Safety Audits and Inspections

Always audit-ready

Each part depends on the others. A documented system without daily checks is theatre. Checks without a system are inconsistent. Neither matters if you can't prove compliance when inspected.

Part 1: Your food safety management system

A food safety management system (FSMS) is your documented approach to keeping food safe. It's typically based on HACCP principles — Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points — and covers everything from receiving deliveries to serving customers.

What HACCP means in practice

HACCP sounds technical, but the concept is straightforward: identify what could go wrong, decide how to prevent it, and check that your prevention is working.

Hazard analysis — What could contaminate food or make it unsafe? This includes:

  • Biological hazards (bacteria, viruses, parasites)
  • Chemical hazards (cleaning products, allergens, pesticides)
  • Physical hazards (glass, metal, hair, pests)

Critical control points (CCPs) — The steps where you can prevent, eliminate, or reduce hazards to safe levels. Cooking temperature is a classic example: reaching the right core temperature kills harmful bacteria.

Critical limits — The boundaries that must be met at each CCP. These are specific and measurable: "chicken must reach 75°C core temperature" not "cook chicken thoroughly."

Monitoring — How you check that critical limits are being met. This means scheduled checks with defined methods.

Corrective actions — What to do when something goes wrong. If a fridge is too warm, what's the procedure?

Verification — Regular checks that the whole system is working as intended.

Documentation — Records that prove you're following your system. This is what inspectors ask for.

What a working FSMS looks like

A documented system isn't a folder of policies nobody reads. It's procedures your team actually follows, with checks that actually happen, creating records that actually exist when you need them.

For most food businesses, this means:

  • Written procedures for high-risk activities (cooking, cooling, storage, cleaning)
  • Defined temperature limits for storage and cooking
  • Scheduled checks at critical points
  • Training so staff understand their role
  • Records that prove compliance

The specific requirements vary by location and business type. Check your local food safety authority for guidance specific to your jurisdiction.

How Pilla helps with your FSMS

Pilla helps you document your food safety procedures through a video training library. Instead of written procedures that gather dust, you record short videos showing exactly how things should be done in your specific kitchen.

  • Record videos showing your procedures for each food safety topic
  • Our blog articles guide you on what to cover in each video
  • Link videos to work items so staff get just-in-time training when completing checks
  • Track who has watched which training videos
  • Update easily when procedures change — just record a new video

This approach means your FSMS is visual, specific to your operation, and accessible to staff right when they need it.

Part 2: Daily checks that actually happen

Your food safety management system is only as good as its implementation. Daily checks are how you catch problems before they become serious — and how you create the records that prove compliance.

Why paper checks fail

Paper checklists have fundamental problems:

  • Retrospective completion — It's easy to fill in a week's worth of temperature logs at the end of the shift. Everyone knows it happens.
  • Lost records — Paper gets lost, damaged, or thrown away. When you need last month's temperature logs, they're gone.
  • Inconsistency — Different staff interpret checklists differently. One person's "clean" isn't another's.
  • No accountability — You can't tell who actually did a check, or when, or whether the reading was real.

Digital records with timestamps address these problems. When a check is completed in Pilla, you know who did it and when. Records can't be backdated. Nothing gets lost.

The checks that matter

Temperature monitoring is your most critical control. Food-borne bacteria multiply rapidly in the "danger zone" between 8°C and 63°C. Key checks include:

  • Fridges — Should be between 1-5°C (check local requirements). Check at least daily, ideally at opening.
  • Freezers — Should be -18°C or below. Check daily.
  • Cooking temperatures — Most foods need to reach 75°C core temperature. Check high-risk items.
  • Hot holding — Food kept hot for service should stay above 63°C.
  • Deliveries — Check temperature of chilled and frozen goods on arrival.

Note: These thresholds are common guidelines. Verify the requirements for your location.

Opening and closing checks ensure standards are maintained:

  • Work surfaces clean and sanitised
  • Handwash stations stocked
  • Probe thermometers available and calibrated
  • Food properly stored and labelled
  • Waste removed

Delivery checks catch problems before contaminated food enters your kitchen:

  • Temperature of chilled/frozen items
  • Packaging condition
  • Use-by dates acceptable
  • Vehicle cleanliness (for high-risk deliveries)

Cleaning verification proves sanitation happened:

  • Scheduled deep cleaning completed
  • Equipment cleaned after use
  • Sanitiser solutions at correct concentration

What good records contain

Every check should record:

  • Date and time — When was the check done?
  • Who — Which staff member completed it?
  • What — What was checked?
  • Result — What was the reading or finding?
  • Action — If something was wrong, what was done about it?

Digital records with automatic timestamps are far more credible than paper sheets that could have been filled in at any time.

How Pilla helps with daily checks

Pilla turns your checks into scheduled work items that staff complete on their phones:

  • Scheduled tasks appear when due — opening checks at opening time, closing checks at closing time
  • Structured forms with number inputs for temperatures, checklists for procedures, photo uploads for evidence
  • Completion timestamps recorded automatically — you can see if checks were done on time or late
  • Photo evidence for visual verification (cleaning completed, delivery condition, equipment state)
  • Issue reporting when staff find problems that need manager attention
  • Analytics showing completion patterns over time — which checks get missed, which teams are consistent

Staff complete checks as part of their routine. Managers see at a glance whether everything got done.

Part 3: Audits and inspections

Audits verify that your system works. They're how you prove compliance to regulators, identify gaps before they cause problems, and maintain standards over time.

Types of audits

Official inspections — Regulatory inspections by your local food safety authority (Environmental Health Officers in the UK, health inspectors elsewhere). These typically determine your public hygiene rating.

Internal audits — Self-assessments you conduct to check your own compliance. Good operators do these regularly, not just before expected inspections.

Third-party audits — External audits for certification schemes, brand standards, or supply chain requirements. Common in chain operations or businesses supplying other food businesses.

What inspectors assess

Inspectors typically look at three areas:

Documentation and records

  • Is there a documented food safety management system?
  • Are HACCP records complete and current?
  • Do temperature logs show consistent monitoring?
  • Are cleaning schedules documented and followed?
  • Is staff training recorded?

Physical inspection

  • Is the premises clean and well-maintained?
  • Is food stored correctly (temperature, separation, labelling)?
  • Is temperature control equipment working?
  • Are pest control measures in place?
  • Are staff following hygiene practices?

Staff knowledge

  • Do staff understand food safety principles?
  • Can they explain their procedures?
  • Do they know what to do if something goes wrong?

Why inspections go wrong

Common reasons for poor inspection outcomes:

  • Missing records — The checks were done but the paperwork is lost
  • Inconsistent records — Gaps in logging, different formats, incomplete entries
  • Procedures not followed — Written policies exist but staff don't follow them
  • Staff can't explain — Procedures exist but staff don't understand them
  • Physical problems — Equipment issues, cleanliness problems, storage errors

Most of these come down to the gap between documented procedures and daily reality. A strong FSMS with consistent daily checks closes this gap.

How Pilla helps with audits

When an inspector arrives, you need records immediately. Pilla keeps everything in one place:

  • All records searchable — Find any check, any date, any team member
  • Export to CSV via email for inspectors who want spreadsheets
  • Completion analytics show your compliance patterns — on-time completion rates, missed checks, trends over time
  • Gaps are visible — Missed checks show clearly, so you can identify problems before inspectors do
  • Self-audit templates let you run internal audits using the same structured approach as your daily checks

The best audit preparation is consistent daily compliance. If checks happen every day and records exist, there's nothing to scramble for when the inspector arrives.

The complete cycle

The three parts of food safety — system, checks, audits — form a continuous improvement cycle:

  1. Your FSMS defines what hazards exist and how to control them
  2. Daily checks execute those controls and create evidence
  3. Audits verify the evidence and identify gaps
  4. Gaps feed back into improving your FSMS

This cycle is the difference between compliance theatre (documented policies nobody follows) and actual food safety (consistent practices that protect customers).

Why digital systems make this work

Paper-based systems break this cycle. Records get lost, so audits can't verify compliance. Checks get skipped and backdated, so they don't catch problems. The system on paper doesn't match reality.

Digital records with timestamps, completion tracking, and analytics keep the cycle working:

  • Consistency — Same checks, same format, every time
  • Accountability — You know who did what and when
  • Visibility — Managers see completion patterns, not just individual records
  • Traceability — Every record is findable when you need it
  • Analysis — Spot trends and problems before they become serious

Getting started

Where you start depends on where you are:

If you have nothing documented — Start with the FSMS guide. You need a system before you can implement checks.

If you have paper systems — Start with the Checks guide to digitise your existing procedures. You'll immediately get better records and visibility.

If you need to improve ratings — Start with the Audits guide to identify gaps in your current compliance, then work backwards to fix them.